CHAPEL HILL  The East Carolina Pirates were strutting toward the locker room. The fans were chanting and the fight song was blaring.

The Pirates manhandled North Carolina on Saturday  their first win in Chapel Hill since 1975.

The biggest factor was the offense.

Quarterback Shane Carden spread the ball around, ran for three touchdowns and torched North Carolina's defense.

With Carden under center, East Carolina's offense was firing on all cylinders .

The Houston, Texas native connected with 12 different receivers and helped the Pirates snap a four-game losing streak against the Tar Heels.

Carden passed for 347 yards and three scores in ECU's 55-31 win in Chapel Hill Saturday  the Pirates highest point total in the series..

I had a bad taste in my mouth from last year (a 27-6 loss) and I knew I could play a lot better, Carden said. We knew we could play this way. We just hadn't quite gotten to that point yet, but we knew it was there.

It was like we were clicking today.

The Pirates marched 73 yards on their opening drive, capped off by a six-yard touchdown pass to Justin

Hardy.

Carden found Lance Ray for a 7-yard touchdown and added a pair of 1-yard runs to give ECU a commanding 28-10 cushion at halftime.

Any game, anybody can have a big game, Hardy said. We put a lot of emphasis on that, and if we do the routine plays, everything works out for us.

Carden punched in another 1-run touchdown run midway in the third quarter. Ray snagged a 48-yard touchdown catch from Carden with 3:33 remaining to put the game on ice.

This week, we put a lot of emphasis on playing fast and doing routine plays. We usually run around 70 plays, Hardy said.

Senior running back Vintavious Cooper rumbled for a career-high 186 yards to go along with 70 receiving yards on eight catches.

Ray led all ECU receivers with 84 yards and Hardy tallied 66 yards.

It definitely felt good to come out against a tough opponent, and in a big rivalry game against the Tar Heels, Cooper said. The coaches talked all week about being more balanced and establishing a run game. Our run game, it opened up the pass game.

Adam Thompson can be contacted at 252-635-5669 or at Adam.Thompson@newbernsj.com. Follow Adam on Twitter @Adam_matic.